Three Days Out!

By the time we weighed anchor from the Galapagos it was almost 3 in the afternoon but when you're about to travel 3,055 nm or so you don't have to be concerned about leaving at the crack of dawn.

Sailing West - Fish on

Sailing West - Cleaning

Sailing West - Just some of the fish

Sailing West - Some Mahi Mahi

Anyway we just completed day 3 and have traveled 430 nm miles as the crow flies so we've been making great time. Conditions have been mixed, with some rough seas, some calm, usually a very comfortable amount of wind but sometimes reefing the sails significantly is called for. There has been sun, cloud and rain but NO SNOW! The temperature ranges between 23 and 28 degrees which actually feels very cool after sunset in the breeze.

Within 24 hours of setting sail, both the fishing rods whirred into action and a hand line hooked something. Mathew and René ran for the rods while I slowed the boat from about 7 knots to 3.5. René's line snapped, the hand line was ignored and Mathew was struggling with something heavy and strong that wanted to take off with all the line on his reel. We resorted to stalling the boat completely so Mathew could get some of his line back and continue to play the fish with all his strength and weight until it tired.

Finally we could see it on the surface of the water. It wasn't fighting anymore, it was belly up, with fins flopping but still Mathew struggled to bring it in. At the back of the boat René gaffed it (a gaff is a big metal hook on a long wooden handle), we tied a line around the tail to be sure it wouldn't escape our grasp and with great effort, a huge Yellow Fin Tuna was dragged onto the sugar scoop. It measured 4 feet 7.5 inches in length and our guess is it must have weighed between 120 and 150 pounds. WOW!!! By the time it was cleaned, filleted, packaged and stored and some cut up for Ceviché and Tuna Carpaccio about 5 hours had elapsed. What an exciting haul! It looks like we'll be eating tuna all the way to the Marquesas and still have lots left.

Last night a wave crashed onto the deck and we hadn't realized that the main hatch wasn't latched. Oops. That was a lot of salt water to clean up in the middle of the night.

This morning Mathew went on a squid hunt around the deck and including the one that landed on René's foot early this morning, 24 squid and 2 flying fish were tossed back into the ocean. Can you tell the night was kind of rough?

Today, the guys had the guts to put out 2 hand lines. Like we don't have enough fish yet? Where will we put it if we catch more? Hmmm... apparently our portable Waeco fridge/freezer is now relegated to fish storage and there's a bit of space left. Wouldn't you know it, we caught 2 nice little Mahi Mahi. Now we have a choice between light fish and dark fish. We'll be scouring all the books for interesting recipes now!